Storytelling
by Ashynarr
Summary: Magnus finds something interesting in the Warp. Tzeentch is surprisingly honest. Or is he?


Stories are life, life is stories, and no matter how the stories change, they always stay the same. Or is it the other way around? I always forget, to be honest.

I mean, you've heard the phrase 'everyone has a story to tell?' It's actually a completely and utter lie, because that implies that a person only has one, when all of them are an entire series waiting to be written, either in their own life or in one of the thousands of thousands of other lives that could have been if they'd decided something different, or if I'd prodded them to be interesting, or if my incredibly shortsighted and rather two dimensional 'companions' got involved. Sometimes when I take a soul I like to send them through all their potential lives just to see how they react.

You know how funny it is when they think they can change a past that's as set as I'm not? Just looping and looping round and round, not even anchored to their own sanity after a while, though sometimes they actually manage to loop back to sanity and do something that even surprises me! Those ones I like to let go, if only because the chaos they leave in their wake… oh, I could spend forever just sharing my favorites!

Ah, but just playing with souls I already have is boring, and there's so many new souls being born that I just can't help but keep on collecting them. There was this one gal a while back, cute little thing, lots of cuddly fur, had a real good open mind just waiting for a chat. I showed her some of my story collection, wanted to see what she'd do with it, and by me she took them and ran with it. Overthrew her own government because she thought the peace and stagnancy was boring, then set up a rebellion to kill her and her followers just to keep the story rolling, because she'd thought being a villain without a hero was dreadfully boring after a few years. The aftershocks of that set a cascade of dozens of smaller rebellions and fragmented governments who all thought they were the rightful replacements, and after a hundred years of infighting, they finally managed to blow themselves out of existence, leaving just a bunch of ruins that a dozen other species picked over without any appreciation for the marvelous saga their brutal decline and demise made.

I think she's playing around with some coldblooded species a few years thataway. Girl keeps making me proud with all the stories she's playing out at once. A parent like me could almost cry, if I had eyes to do so with at the moment. Oh wait, I do! Ah, I crack me up.

But even collecting stories gets boring after a while, especially all the ones with things always falling apart. I mean, don't get me wrong, chaos is my thing, and seeing what it takes to break people is a hobby, but sometimes you need a change of pace, you know? Build up a few heroes to stand against the darkness, see how long they last in a galaxy rigged against them. Some last a few weeks. Some last years. Some even manage to die of old age, thinking they've left a legacy of heroism. I really like those ones, try to keep them around long enough to see their peace fall apart because of a few young dumbasses with more ego than sense. Tears just really fuel the creative process, you know?

Your father? Didn't have a thing to do with him. Honestly, we didn't even notice your species until a few millennia after he popped up, what with all of you being so weak on our side of things back then. Not to mention there was this twenty-seven way war between these eighteen species… man, that was time well spent, a shame I'm not going to pull that off again any time soon what with all this 'Great Crusade' nonsense.

Oh don't look so offended, it takes a long time for a species to be worth our time and effort, and yours wasn't any different at first. Only reason we even realized there was something more to you all was when I found a girl who wanted to get out of her boring story, and your father decided to take offence at a little bit of godly story building. She'd hardly even killed more than a few thousand at the time, which you'd think with all the wars and pestilence and disasters and whatnot he'd barely even notice, but them's the breaks, I guess.

I'm not going to lie, I might have actually cried when I saw the story unfold between the two, and I didn't even set up a thing, that was all her! Not only did she manage to get him involved by drawing his eyes with the classic monster's rampage and getting him to dispatch it in the manner of classic hero setup, but she actually got rejected when she tried to pull him into a lovelorn romantic plot thread! I couldn't believe my eyes when the two lead their dance across your little homeworld, spinning off a million and one stories you all still tell in such mangled recounts you'd almost forget the two who started them all. Oh, I just want to roll in memory of all the story ideas those two spawned that I spun off into action on a thousand other worlds!

And in the end, he won! Against my favorite little budding storyteller, even! While also dealing with that dragon problem of his! Oh, I knew then and there that your father's story was the greatest one I was ever going to get to play with, and I was well set to offer him the job of a lifetime to keep those stories rolling.

I mean sure, he rejected me, classic hero thing and all that, but then he had to be rude and just do NOTHING of interest for the next few dozen millennia. NOTHING! No matter how many plots I set up to drag him out into the open, he just waved them all away like it wasn't even important! Do you know how that makes me feel! Frustrated! And sad. I don't think he even noticed that five way civil war I started ten millennia ago, my dumb fuck companions ruined that before it could even go anywhere.

I have to admit, when those Eldar fucked up, and down, and in so many directions that even my eyes got crossed trying to puzzle it out, it finally got him off his ass and doing something INTERESTING again. I might have made sure that one eldar goddess got away just because of that, because the little upstart had no right to do in five millennia what I hadn't in thirty, no matter that it also made all those juicy, energy rich souls vulnerable without their precious gods defending them.

...Okay, so maybe I snuck a few thousand eldar souls while the whore was getting their ass beat like a drum by my companions, wouldn't you do the same in my place? And they had the nerve to be rude after I saved them from the eternal pleasure and suffering in that corner of the galaxy! Some races just don't appreciate good stories… well, aside from that small number in the Webway, they've got good taste and their patron actually appreciates the setup as much as the payoff. I might see if I can lure him your way, he and his minions are real _acts_, and the routine is to _die_ for, heheheh…

Where was I? Oh right, your father. When I saw him pop up on that scraggy dust bucket you all call a homeworld, I actually cried with joy, because I knew this was gonna be the one, the greatest work ever written in the galaxy! My little storytellers in training there actually threw a celebration when I told them the news, and they set up quite the party for him and his army. Couldn't make his story too easy, after all, no one wants to hear about some golden godly figure just wiping away all the problems in the galaxy without effort. He had to work for it, and work he did. Man, when I tell you when he did with those Thunder Warriors…

Ah, you want to know where you come in? Well, you see, he decided he didn't like all the boring grindwork that happens behind the scenes of every good story, and figured he's speed things up with a few kids who could spread out the stories waiting to be written and so speed up the process of getting them all done with. Which I mean, I hardly mind, twenty new stories in the demigod range! Do you know how hard it is to get stories on your scale? And to think the other three want to waste your potential on such stupid things like they've got planned…

Oh, don't you worry your little head, I'm not going to let you waste your potential so easily. You've got the makings of greatness already, what with you finding me and chatting with me despite your age. In fact, I might just leave you with a little present before I go and see how my little fluffy storyteller is doing, last I heard from her she was setting up a real whopper of a tale, enough to drag in a hundred systems at least! Oh, it's nothing too special, just a bit of narrative causality awareness, the basic starting point for any serious storyteller.

See, it's easy once you know what you're looking at, isn't it? Just wait until you master it, then you can get to the really fun parts of plotting out story threads. And once you have your legion, whoo boy are you gonna make waves.

Yes, your father might be my greatest challenge and reward, but you, you're going to be my magnum opus. It's even your name, see? Funny how the warp works sometimes.

Oh, excuse me, some of my other little storytellers want my attention, and I can't wait to see the fallout. The others just don't appreciate their kids the way I do, honestly, you'd think chaos would have a bit more variety in this day and age…

My name? Well, I guess you've earned that much, at least, Magny-magic. Some call me the changer of ways, the lord of hope, and the master of plots unending.

But you can call me Tzeentch.

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Yes, did you want something?

Ahh, I see you've figured out my little present. Why the long face?

The Heresy thing? Oh yes, that's been the plan since we liberated you all from those dreary, sterile labs of your fathers. The seeds of rebellion are in all of you, you know, it's just a matter of which ones decide to rise above temptation and which are lured to the potential of freeing themselves from the stories your father set for them. But you don't need me to tell you the pattern, do I? Nine to rise, nine to fall, and two lost to history, nothing but their numbers left to mark they ever existed at all.

I was so proud of wrangling that bit; sure, ten of each might have been more dramatic, but nine is such a _pleasant_ number, don't you think?

Oh don't give me that look, you wouldn't be bothering me if you hadn't tried looking for a way out of it and failed. And before you ask, no, why would I bother stopping it? Not only are my companions too invested in your brothers to stop, to withdraw my support would mean I would miss out on my own champion, a star to set atop the proverbial throne of my greatest followers.

Evil? My boy, I'm an agent of chaos and change, I do precisely as much good as evil, all of it towards remaking what was into what will be. I make villains, it's true, but I make heroes as well. Hope, remember? I can't squash hope unless it's there in the first place, and all those warp storms rather caused a dearth of hope among your species for a long while.

Fortunately, your father did his part in setting up all that hope, trillions upon trillions of souls for the first time in ages tasting the promise of safety in a galaxy long dark to them, and a final stability where once there was uncertainty. But just as hope comes, so it must go, and the second act is already underway, a delicious tragedy that will echo across history and the warp for thousands of years to come.

Stop it yourself? Well, I suppose you could try. Perhaps warn your father? Oh wait, he's tucked away behind barriers even your might can't pass, isn't he? Well, if not him, perhaps your other brothers?

Ohh, but that's the question, isn't it? Is what you saw the truth, or just what you believe I wanted you to see in order to make you act too quickly and hasten the fall? I'll give you a hint: all those timelines are still possible. The roads are all in place for each of them. The only thing left to decide which they go down is you.

So you could save Horus, yes, but poor Sanguinius could be his replacement. Save Fulgrim, and watch Roboute fall instead. The choice is all yours, Magnus. You could be the hero of the Imperium, turning back the traitors with your foreknowledge, perhaps even saving your father's life! And just think, you could personally guarantee those who mocked you your powers and capabilities are perceived forever as the barbarians and traitors you want them to be. Tempting, isn't it?

No? Not even the Wolf King? Not even with the glee in which he tears your world to shreds? My, what a noble child you are. Perhaps a bit of that hero's blood from your father?

I see you've made your decision. Don't you mind me one bit, I'm just going to sit back and watch how your story unfolds.

Make me proud, kid.

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Rigged, you say?

You knew that from the start, you just thought you could beat the game by its own rules. I was old when your species was figuring out walking on two legs, what makes you think others haven't tried the same and paid the price?

Come now, don't look so down, you played remarkably well for your youth. I never thought you'd be so callous as to throw him to our side just to save someone you don't even like. Perhaps with more time you might have even been able to figure out a way to get past that Webway without breaking it open and leaving your poor father trapped on the throne while his sons and Imperium all tore each other and his dreams to itty bits.

But you know that that would have happened no matter what you did, don't you? Half a dozen legions with their own secret sorceries, all equally capable of breaking your father's hopes to pieces. You figured in the end it might as well be you, the moment you decided you were already damned anyways. Might as well live up to your treachery, right?

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You think there could have been a way? Perhaps, perhaps… the Warp is full of possibilities, and I'm never one to back down from a chance to nurture that small shred of hope until it's grown enough to make the crushing all the more spectacular.

Shall we play around round, then? Let me just reset the pieces, now there's a lad…

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Stories are life, life is stories, and no matter how the stories change, they always stay the same. Or is it the other way around? I always forget, to be honest.

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AN: Best review I got for this on Spacebattles:

"Its totally different from any sort of interpretation of Tzeentch I've ever seen before, let alone my understanding of what Tzeentch _IS_. And yet it feels like Tzeentch completely ( but I can't explain why)."

My reply:

"I think the reason it both feels like Tzeentch and seems so weird is because Tzeentch is a changer of ways, and what are stories generally about? How something changed from before. So in a way, it fits his motif, but we never see it framed in that way because most people think about him in terms of plots and treachery and warpcraft and not, well, telling stories, which seems far too organized for a chaos entity. And at the same time, though, a story is an organic, shifting thing that changes based on who tells it and who it's told to, and so I could see, in the end, some servants of Tzeentch seeing themselves in this way and so projecting it on their god. And when those 'storytellers' merely see everyone around them as 'characters' in some great act they're playing out... suddenly it loops right back around to the sort of gleeful, plot-ridden chaos that fits him perfectly.

I think? I might just be BSing because I'm not the most read-in on all the Warhammer lore out there. :V"

And the follow up addition:

"Sounds about as thought out as anything official."

And finally:

"Fair. Also another thought for why it seems weird is because it seems like he's being completely honest, which isn't his thing, but actually reading between the lines shows that he's still very much up to his doublespeak and leading people along to false conclusions on half-truths. Or maybe he _is_ telling the truth and expecting it to not be believed. Even I can't completely say for sure.


End file.
